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(a) (1) The department shall convene a workgroup of interested stakeholders to make recommendations to the department to ensure compliance with the intent of this article, as provided in subdivision (a) of Section 14126.02.
(2) (A) Interested stakeholders shall include consumers or their representatives, or both, including current or former skilled nursing facility residents, and family members of current or former skilled nursing facility residents, or both, seniors or their representatives, or both, skilled nursing facility representatives, labor representatives, and people with disabilities and disability rights advocates.
(B) A stakeholder workgroup of 18 members shall be convened representing interested stakeholders from the groups listed in subparagraph (A), with six members selected from each of the following areas of interest:
(ii) Skilled nursing facility labor.
(iii) Skilled nursing facilities.
(C) Interested stakeholders within each of the areas of interest in subparagraph (B) shall nominate and select six members within their area of interest to serve on the stakeholder workgroup to represent their interests.
(D) The stakeholder workgroup shall also include representatives from the department, the Office of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman, the State Department of Public Health, the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, with members appointed by their respective directors, or their designee, and may also include legislative staff, academics, and other state department representatives, including, but not limited to, representatives from the California Department of Aging and the State Department of Developmental Services.
(b) (1) Each stakeholder workgroup meeting shall be chaired by a facilitator from an organization independent of the department and any of the stakeholder groups, to the extent that foundation funding is made available for this purpose. If no funds are made available for this purpose, the department shall facilitate the stakeholder workgroup meetings.
(2) The consumers, skilled nursing facility labor, and skilled nursing facility stakeholder workgroup members shall each select one representative who will meet with the department and the facilitator to develop meeting agendas after having solicited input from each representative’s respective stakeholder group.
(3) To the extent that foundation funding is made available, stakeholder workgroup members shall receive reimbursement for any actual, necessary, and reasonable expenses incurred in connection with their duties as members of the workgroup.
(c) The department shall assign staff as needed to assist the stakeholder workgroup in carrying out its responsibilities.
(d) In developing recommendations, the stakeholder workgroup shall consider the structure of, and potential changes to, the facility-specific ratesetting system, developed pursuant to Section 14126.023, that may improve the quality of resident care. The stakeholder workgroup members may take into consideration the following factors, or any other factors deemed relevant to ensure the quality of resident care:
(1) Skilled nursing facility staffing levels, including, but not limited to, compliance with existing staffing requirements.
(2) Skilled nursing facility staff wages and benefits, including, but not limited to, geographic disparities in wages and benefits.
(3) Skilled nursing facility staff turnover and retention.
(4) Deficiency reports issued as a result of both surveys and complaint investigations, to the extent that they may be disclosed as public records, and the enforcement actions taken under federal certification and state licensing laws and regulations.
(5) Skilled nursing facility compliance with assessments required to ascertain residents’ preference for, and ability to return to, the community as required by Section 1418.81 of the Health and Safety Code, including necessary followthrough to assure care necessary for a resident to transition out of skilled nursing facility care and into the community.
(6) The extent to which this article encourages compliance with the United States Supreme Court decision in Olmstead v. L.C. ex rel. Zimring (1999) 527 U.S. 581, including using the ratesetting system to increase Olmstead compliance.
(7) Health care efficiency.
(8) Health care safety.
(9) The extent to which a pay-for-performance program may contribute to improving the quality of resident care and appropriate performance measures for a pay-for-performance program.
(10) Preventable emergency room visits and rehospitalizations.
(11) Resident and family satisfaction with care and resident’s quality of life, including improvements on ways to measure satisfaction.
(12) Recommendations for methods to evaluate the effectiveness of the facility-specific ratesetting system, defined in Section 14126.023, in meeting the intent of this article, pursuant to Section 14126.02.
(13) Additional quality measures, including, but not limited to, adequate nutrition and ready availability of durable medical equipment.
(e) The department shall convene the stakeholder workgroup no later than one month following the effective date of this section. The stakeholder workgroup shall meet a minimum of six times through December 31, 2008. Subcommittees may be convened and meet as necessary.
(f) In addition to recommendations provided during stakeholder workgroup meetings, individual members of the stakeholder workgroup and any other interested stakeholders may provide to the department any additional written recommendations on the items considered in the stakeholder workgroup meetings.
(g) The department shall provide technical assistance to the stakeholder workgroup to evaluate the feasibility of its recommendations so that the stakeholder workgroup will have the benefit of the department’s analysis when discussing and reviewing proposed recommendations.
(h) The department shall review and analyze all recommendations from the stakeholder workgroup, individual workgroup members, and any other interested stakeholders, and, no later than March 1, 2009, the department shall deliver to the Legislature, both of the following:
(1) The complete recommendations of the stakeholder workgroup, individual workgroup members, and any other interested stakeholders.
(2) The department’s analysis of the feasibility to implement the proposed recommendations.
(i) (1) The stakeholder workgroup may continue to meet to carry out its responsibilities pursuant to subdivision (d) for an extension period of up to one year. During this extension period, the stakeholder workgroup shall meet at least quarterly as agreed by the department and those members selected pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (a).
(2) During the extension period the stakeholder workgroup’s activities may include assisting the department or Legislature, or both, to enact improvements to the ratesetting system.
(j) The department shall seek partnership with one or more independent, nonprofit groups or foundations, academic institutions, or governmental entities providing grants for health-related activities, to support stakeholder workgroup efforts.
(k) The department shall seek necessary legislative changes to implement the stakeholder workgroup’s recommendations that the department determines are feasible to implement as part of the reauthorization of this section.
(l) The department may meet the intent of this article, as stated in subdivision (a) of Section 14126.02, by using the stakeholder workgroup’s recommendations in order to design an evaluation of the effectiveness of the facility-specific ratesetting system established pursuant to Section 14126.023.
(m) Implementation and administration of this section is not dependent on the availability of foundation funding.